Feb 8, 2026, 9:37 p.mFeb 8, 2026, 9:37 p.m
António José Seguro at an election party in Lisbon.Image: keystone
According to forecasts, António José Seguro from the social democratic Socialist Party (PS) clearly won the runoff election for the Portuguese presidency. According to a survey by the state television station RTP, which is considered to be very reliable, the 63-year-old received 68 to 73 percent of the vote. Other media in the country such as the newspaper “Público” also gave similar figures.
It was considered virtually impossible that the counting of the ballot papers during the evening could change anything about Seguro’s victory. Seguro would thus succeed the conservative incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (77), who was not allowed to run again after two five-year terms.
Opponent far behind
According to these preliminary figures, Seguro’s opponent, the right-wing populist André Ventura, ended up far behind at 27 to 32 percent. Even before the first round of voting, 60 percent of those surveyed said that they would definitely not vote for the polarizing politician with his anti-immigrant agenda. Ventura had called for the election to be postponed because of a series of storms that hit the country since last week. The fact that the 43-year-old could attract almost a third of the voters was seen as a further sign of the rapid rise of right-wing populists. Just six years after its founding, Ventura’s Chega (Enough) party had already become the second strongest force in the Lisbon parliament in May last year. She presents herself as an advocate for the common people who need to be defended against the elites who are criticized as corrupt. Despite the problems caused by the violent winter storms, the election went largely smoothly. Only in three municipalities with a total of 37,000 eligible voters was the election postponed by a week to February 15th due to the storm’s consequences. (sda/dpa)